George Steinbrenner started and perpetuated the notion that a New York Yankees season is a failure if it doesn’t end with a World Series title. Not that winning a championship is the goal — it’s obviously every team’s goal — but that in addition to it being the goal, it is the only acceptable outcome. That a baseball season is a binary proposition: triumph or disgrace.

I get it. It’s motivational and, as the Yankees won a lot of World Series titles between 1996 and 2001, it served as a nice little way for Yankees fans to take pride in their team, its rich history and, of course, for the Yankees to build a unique brand identity.

But it’s also unrealistic. Even with all of their advantages over other teams, baseball is still tough enough and random enough to where nothing makes a World Series title even a close-to-good bet. I mean, they’ve been among the best teams in baseball for the past decade and they have one title in that time. That’s awesome — better than most — but it’s evidence that no matter what you do, there is luck and chance and stuff that enters into the deal.

But in addition to “World Series or bust” being somewhat unrealistic, it also creates a sense of entitlement in some fans and a built-in disappointment-creation device for others. Think about it: if your old man tells you that nothing but the best will do, you’re likely to become either some hyper-competitive kind of person or an often-depressed one. While I’m fortunate to know several grounded Yankees fans, it’s not a stretch to say that there are many who are either really angry or really morose today.

“We are the Yankees,” Levine told ESPNNewYork.com on Friday as he and the franchise coped with being eliminated at home in Game 5 of the ALDS by the Tigers. “That is the way The Boss set it up. When you don’t win the World Series, it is a bitter disappointment and not a successful year.”

Let me ask you, Yankees fans: did you feel like you just wasted the last six or seven months of your life? While, sure, the ALDS was a disappointing, are you bitter? Is it a dark time and do you face a brutal winter, or did you actually, you know, have a lot of fun following a damn good baseball team this year?

Don’t worry: if you’re not bitterly disappointed — if you actually can settle for less-than-a-championship most years — I won’t tell anyone.

Former Mets catcher Johnny Monell signed a contract with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization, per a report by Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. The 30-year-old originally struck a deal with the NC Dinos on Thursday, but the deal appeared to fall through at the last minute, according to Cotillo’s unnamed source.

Monell last surfaced for the Mets during their 2015 run, batting a dismal .167/.231/.208 with two extra bases in 52 PA before the club DFA’d him to clear space for Bartolo Colon. While he’s had difficulty sticking at the major league level, he’s found a higher degree of success in the minor league circuit and holds a career .271 average over a decade of minor league play. He played exclusively in Triple-A Las Vegas during the 2016 season, slashing .276/.336/.470 with 19 home runs and a career-high 75 RBI in 461 PA.

The veteran backstop appears to be the second MLB player to join the KT Wiz roster this offseason, as right-hander Donn Roach also signed with the club last month on a one-year, $850,000 deal.

Brewers’ right-hander Phil Bickford received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for a drug of abuse, per the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin. This is the second time Bickford has been suspended for recreational drug use, as he was previously penalized in 2015 after testing positive for marijuana prior to the amateur draft.

Bickford was selected by the Giants in the first round of the 2015 draft and was later dealt to the Brewers for lefty reliever Will Smith at the 2016 trade deadline. He finished his 2016 campaign in High-A Brevard County, pitching to a 3.67 ERA, 10.0 K/9 rate and 5.0 BB/9 over 27 innings.

Two other suspensions were handed down on Friday, one to Toronto minor league right-hander Pedro Loficial for a positive test for metabolites of Stanozolol and one to Miami minor league outfielder Casey Soltis for a second positive test for drugs of abuse. Loficial will serve a 72-game suspension, while Soltis will serve 50 games. All three suspensions are due to start at the beginning of the 2017 season for each respective minor league team.

We are very disappointed to learn of Phil’s suspension, but we fully support the Minor League Baseball Drug Prevention and Testing Program and its enforcement by the Commissioner’s Office. Phil understands he made a mistake, and we fully anticipate that he will learn from this experience.